


Reaping Your Rewards

by Just A Couple Of Death Priests (WalkOnThroughARedParade)



Series: Life Lessons [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Have I ever written anything so self indulgent!!!!!, I hope I did Talon justice bc I love my boy, M/M, Tris is cute and Talon has a Minor Crisis, probably not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 05:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13563933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WalkOnThroughARedParade/pseuds/Just%20A%20Couple%20Of%20Death%20Priests
Summary: “So, the Lord gave me these coins.” Tris reached into one of the pouches at his waist - and Talon realised he was still fully dressed, boots and all - and pulled out the pouch Ashford had given him earlier, dumping the gold coins inside out onto the bed. He turned another expectant look on Talon; and Talon regarded him warily.“Yeah. That- that’s money. For buying shit.”Tristan’s expression turned disparaging.“I know whatmoney is.”Alternatively;In Which Tristan Learns, And Talon Is Faced With A Crisis Of The Emotional Variety.





	Reaping Your Rewards

Talon shifted, a little restless, in his sleep, still lingering on the edge of actual, satisfying rest; and pressed his face a little harder into his pillow.

There were a veritable menagerie of reasons true sleep was hard to attain, not least of which was the fact this  _ fucking bed _ was too  _ goddamn soft _ \- which was, perhaps, an odd thing to complain about, but after a life spent sleeping on lumpy mattresses or nothing much at all it was something of a  _ problem _ \- and that wasn’t even touching on how those stupid, person-eating birds had fucked him up.

Gods, not the birds. The last thing he needed right now, in his hazy, pre-sleep state, was to think about those fucking  _ birds _ .

He just needed to sleep, needed  _ proper _ sleep, before they decided where they’d head next in the morning. Talon just wanted to drift off properly...maybe indulge in a dream or two about a certain strange, adorable blonde...

“Can I ask you a question?”

Talon’s hand went immediately for his dagger, stowed underneath the too-soft pillow, before consciousness had even  _ properly _ returned to him, and by the time he was properly,  _ fully _ awake, he found himself staring down at round, startled blue eyes; and it took him a moment to realise he had the boy staring up at him pinned, and that he was sat squarely on his chest, dagger pressed to his throat while his other hand pinned both his wrists over his head.

Tristan opened his mouth, before his brow furrowed and he pressed his lips together, expression thoughtful.

Talon listed every colourful, atrocious curse word he knew in his head, before letting go of his wrists and pulling his dagger away from Tris’ throat, setting it down on the bedside table and pushing a hand back through his hair.

“What the  _ fuck, _ Tris.”

The blonde moved a hand to his neck, touching his throat, before grimacing up at Talon.

“I’m sorry. Were you asleep?” Talon groaned in exasperation, and climbed off the blonde, belatedly realising it probably wasn’t the best idea to stay sat on top of him much longer; and he watched Tris as he sat up slowly, leaning back on his forearms while the boy continued to check his neck thoughtfully and looked over at him, blinking expectantly.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m not asleep any more, am I?” Tris made a noise when Talon finished speaking, soft and understanding like he’d imparted some great wisdom, before he shuffled a little closer, expression intent.

“So, the Lord gave me these coins.” Tris reached into one of the pouches at his waist - and Talon realised he was still fully dressed, boots and all - and pulled out the pouch Ashford had given him earlier, dumping the gold coins inside out onto the bed. He turned another expectant look on Talon; and Talon regarded him warily.

“Yeah. That- that’s money. For buying shit.”

Tristan’s expression turned disparaging.

“I know what  _ money is _ ,” he stated, reaching into a different pouch and pulling out a handful of coins, which he dumped on the bed with the gold, “I have been buying food for a while. I do not understand  _ why _ he gave it to me. I didn’t...I didn’t really do anything, and he never hired me to do it in the first place.”

Talon was distracted, for a moment, by the handful of coins Tris had dumped onto his sheets - it was the weirdest fucking collection he’d ever seen, square coins and ones with holes in them, ones that were especially small and a couple that were twice the size of a normal gold coin - before he glanced up at Tris, and frowned back at him.

“...okay. I’ll give you that you weren’t technically part of the original group asked to sort shit out, but you did as much if not fuckin’  _ more _ than the rest of us. We would have killed that massive fuck-off blink dog if you hadn’t spoken to it, and you were the one who sent it back to the feywild. Hell, you  _ literally almost died  _ when we fought that elemental thing at the hut.” It had scared the shit out of him, for a moment, when Tris had gone down. “If anyone deserves that fucking gold it’s you.”

Tris’ expression creased for a moment, a frown spreading across his face as he looked back at Talon with a kind of intensity that made him a little uncomfortable, prompting him to sit up properly, crossing his legs and balancing his forearms on his knees.

After a prolonged moment, Tris’ expression softened, and he picked up one of the gold coins, running his thumb across the surface.

“Gold...is helpful. Right? I don’t really need it, I have enough to look after myself, but lots of it can buy armour, and weapons, and...and you, or one of the others could need it. It is...useful to take gold from people.”

It was quite the experience, watching Tristan puzzle out the logic to taking gold for what they’d done over the last two days; and for a moment Talon retreated back behind the familiar, brazen teasing that came so easily to him, offering Tris a roguish grin and moving to prod his shoulder gently with his fist.

“I mean don’t go around  _ taking  _ gold from people unless you can do it without getting  _ caught _ , Tris, but yeah. Shit’s useful. And, you know, it costs gold to do pretty much everything, so the more of it you have the more shit you can do.” Tristan nodded his head as Talon spoke, attentive and determined as he looked back at him; and Talon hesitated for a moment at the intensity of his expression, at his earnestness and the eagerness with which he drank in what he obviously perceived to be some kind of wisdom.

After a second during which Tris looked satisfied, like he’d gotten the answers he had been looking for, he frowned again, and cocked his head at Talon, looking kitten-like and confused.

“How am I supposed to not get caught when I am being  _ handed _ the gold?”

The laughter that spilled out of Talon was unexpected but pretty fucking great, and he laughed harder when Tris pouted back at him, before reaching to ruffle his hair gently. The brief, friendly gesture lingered a second too long, Talon getting distracted by the softness of Tris’ hair and how the odd curl sprang back into a little gold coil when his fingers tugged it straight; and he cleared his throat, before yanking his hand away.

“Go back to bed, Tris. We can talk about the difference between working for gold and stealing it tomorrow.”

The blonde offered him a wide, blinding smile, before scooping up his coins and dumping them back into his pouches, the gold getting mixed up with the other, strange coins as he collected them up. Talon watched him as he collected his money, picking up a many sided coin with a hole in the middle and tucking it into one of Tris’ pouches with a grin when the blonde looked up at him, surprised; and he watched Tris hesitate, got a little trapped in how he worried at his bottom lip with his teeth.

Before the blonde boy closed the last of the distance between them, and wrapped his arms around Talon’s shoulders in a firm hug.

Talon froze, and it took him a long moment to return the hug, wrapping his arms around Tris’ waist and hugging him back tentatively; and the blonde made a noise that was almost a purr, hugging him harder while he buried his face in the crook of his neck.

“Having friends is nice,” he stated, quiet and seemingly to himself; and Talon ran a hand down his spine, unsure whether he was expected to respond, before Tris pulled free of his grasp and scrambled off the bed.

He paused when he was at the door, offering Talon another bright, seemingly grateful grin.

“Thank you, Talon. I am learning a lot! I’ll come back if I have any more questions.”

Tris disappeared out of the door before Talon could protest, could ask him to leave any more questions until morning or,  _ hell _ , go bother Mhèirì instead, especially considering she was almost certainly miles better at this shit that Talon himself was; and he sighed at the space the boy had previously occupied, slumping back on the covers and staring, a little listless, at the canopy of the bed above him.

After a moment he fished out the coin digging into his back, clearly left behind by Tris, and held it up to look at it better, running his thumb along the straight edges of the square piece of copper.

He realised, after a moment, that a dump, unconscious little smile had crept across his face without him noticing; and he clutched the coin in his fist, eyes snapping shut while he clenched his jaw.

Well,  _ fuck _ .


End file.
